Continuous recording and saving?

[Barlow]

Go rent a sound devices 744 or a 788 and you will not have a problem. Run them along side your Protools session as a back-up. This would be a simple solution and give you worry free inviroment . If you mix feature films them im sure you know the sound devices. If not then maybe the Zaxcom line of recorders. Either of these recorders would work and give you a level of reliability that the Protools will not.

I run both a Zaxcom Deva 5.8 and a Sound Devices 788T on my sound cart. Just purchased a Protools 11 with MacBook Pro with Motu828x for my playback system back in September. But I mainly do production sound mixing here in Los Angeles. If your recording only 3 tracks plus maybe a mix i would consider the above recorders to give you a fail safe.

Just a thought.

[DC-Choppah]

You can just open an OS window and go in and copy the region (clip) files to a backup folder or USB stick drive or something while PT is recording.

I just tried this in PT11 on a big session and it worked fine. You can just go and grab the clip files while PT is recording and copy them to a backup drive. Then bring them back in later if needed.

Since it's just an OS thing, you can run a macro recorder and make a hot key for it.

[Bill Denton]

Originally Posted by Peter Baird

Bill, because of you I never hit Save while the transport is running. See? Some of us do listen. But it takes a lot of self-control.

Peter

But it takes a lot of self-control.

Tell me about it! My day-job is programming, and it is just second nature to me...write a line of code, hit [Enter], hit [Ctrl]+[S]...lather, rinse, repeat.

Sometimes, even when I'm doing a forum post like this one, I still hit [Ctrl]+[S] without even thinking about it!

I'll be back in a sec...I keep a chart on my refrigerator and I'll go put a gold star next to your name...

[Bill Denton]

Originally Posted by DC-Choppah

You can just open an OS window and go in and copy the region (clip) files to a backup folder or USB stick drive or something while PT is recording.

I just tried this in PT11 on a big session and it worked fine. You can just go and grab the clip files while PT is recording and copy them to a backup drive. Then bring them back in later if needed.

Since it's just an OS thing, you can run a macro recorder and make a hot key for it.

You know...this is the fourth time I've opened a "reply" window, and I'm still just sitting here shaking my head...

I don't think I have ever before seen so many ways to guarantee a problem in my life.

But hey, it's your life and your career...

[DC-Choppah]

I just want to point out that hitting ctrl-S in PT only saves changes made to the Session file. It does not save any audio in the clip files.

[Andrew. D]

You could try destructive record.
Just create some 2 hour empty files and record into them using the destructive record setting so if your session or computer crashes, it will all be there when you re-start.
Also, I'm fairly sure that even if you do have a computer crash, the only thing you lose is the session file after the point it was last saved, all the the audio up to the point of crash will be in the audio files folder.
Hope this helps and I apologise if I'm teaching you to suck eggs!!

[friendlybunny]

Thanks for all of the advice. Yes, I have been using protools long enough to know that I might have to just deal with a crash during the session.

I was hoping there was some key command.

The technical issues are another problem for another thread.

I think my solution will be to let the client know that I will occasionally be pausing for a split second during a natural break, and then continuing on so I can save as we go.

I have done several of these sessions in the past and have never had such worry about the recording function of PT.

I really hope they take a break from adding new functions and just concentrate on reliability and compatibility. I'm still afraid to upgrade to osx 10.9

[Bill Denton]

Originally Posted by DC-Choppah

I just want to point out that hitting ctrl-S in PT only saves changes made to the Session file. It does not save any audio in the clip files.

Then how does it get saved, magic?

A save is a save...

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by Bill Denton

A save is a save...

...and automatic session file backup is also a save :)

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by friendlybunny

I will be recording a very long continuous session (2 hours). Is there a way I can punch out of record and have it automatically continue recording seamlessly? I would like to save often, and then just consolidate all the regions on export.

I've done over a hundred such gigs and here's what I suggest:

BUY ENOUGH FAST HARD DRIVES, use round-robin allocation and stop worrying about it. Always record to empty hard drives when you only have one chance to get it done.

And in case of PT11 you have the Disc Cache feature (you have HDX so you have HD features) that makes it possible to record to even a lowly USB memory stick without hiccups.

In case your system does not feel stable, then fix it before the gig. There's obviously something wrong if it can't do a dummy recording of 2 hours with ChannelStrip on each track and -say- 10 more reverbs than you need. Test it. If you can do it at studio, you can do it on the road.

That said;

If you really want to stop/restart playback, you will have to test that too. PT finalizes the audio file headers after you stop recording, so you can't just have a "split second" pause if you want to make sure things are properly done before you start recording again. Have an Activity Monitor open (Disk page) and set update frequency to "very often" which means 1sec interval. You'll see how long it takes to cool off.

Which brings me back to my original recommendation. Just fix your system and record a 2-hour session to continuous files. I've done this with every PT version since PT 7.2 HD and never I have had a single problem with it. Because I have had fast enough hard drive (10krpm) and I have tested the system before the show. Confidence comes from repeated testing and repeated success.